2stroke4stroke

If you have the wheel in a position about the middle of the swing arm and the sprockets lining up (by string line or chain should be accurate enough) then you're fine but five notches does seem a lot. Try measuring the distance between the cam stops on the swing arm and the centre of the swingarm spindle to see if they are the same. If the dishing was wrong then you would not be able to correct things by use of the snail cams. If you had the wheel centralised under such circumstances then it would not be pointing dead ahead. Pete - I tried for ages to get a straight edge that would work on the road bike but the answer eventually came from Kevin Cameron's "Sportbike Performance Handbook" (not an appealing title but a really useful book full of his distilled knowledge) - two fluorescent tubes. Cheap ie free, guaranteed to be straight and set up like your device but measurements at the front are taken to the "front and back" if I can put it that way, of the discs. Allows very fine adjustment of alignment and "centre lining" of the rear wheel by tweaking spacers if necessary.

I don't think I ever had a bike in that era that was not like this. Spanish materials and build quality were not of the highest order so swingarms could twist or the frame be off true anyway. Rear wheels were sometimes set off-centre to allow the chain to clear the tire - bear in mind that the motors were basically designed for use in road bikes with much narrower tyres. If the chain is running straight between the sprockets then your wheel is pointing "straight forward", assuming the motor is too (see above re build quality). If the rear wheel is a bit to one side of centre then that is not critical on a trials bike, indeed Sammy Miller once said that made it easier to balance the bike. Whether or not that was the case or just BS to cover for what was coming out the factory we'll never know. Notwithstanding the above I would imagine that having the front rim central in the forks would be advantageous.

Of course if you never see water then there's no point.

I'm just asking for a friend. Is the state of Beta quality control really that embarassing?

Oh yes, the Paul Edmondson bike was a 50, officially a moped as he was only 16. Someone else (I think Steve Colley) rode a Gas Gas 50, as I recall, the same year for the same reason. But I'm happy to be corrected if someone else has a better memory, or a programme.

It seemed to make a slight difference when we filed grooves in brake shoes back in the day.

Lights are an irrelevance and a speedo is easily fitted (I think a 50 now could need one, unlike a few years ago) but you need to get the paperwork from the importer? I reckon it won't exist as there is probably no intention for these to be registered, unlike the 125s and up. Best bet is to speak to the importer of whatever you are thinking of. As I recall the TLM 50, in typical Honda manner, was equipped more for road use than for schoolboy trials so would have had the necessary docs.

Where's the problem? If it's rattling then at least the plates have freed off!

Could be a headache as it won't be built to comply with the Regs hence won't have the paperwork to convince the authorities.

I've got a red pair but there was no interest when I put them on Ebay. Possibly because they had shrunk after 30 years in the back of the wardrobe!

Too young to have seen the excellent Brema suit then?

Were any of your pals in the workshop at any time?

Yeah, wish I could get a "job" with the ACU, all that voluntary work and only a few hundred wheengin' "bosses".

Given all you have posted on here about how the bike runs it's not bad. Monts were a bit sluggish in comparison to the Bultaco. However..........you need to clean up the carburetion. If you look at the early part of the video you are getting up that muddy climb OK until the bike starts four-stroking at which point the wheelgrip vanishes. A common problem but one unappreciated by many riders.

Lights are not a legal requirement here bieze.

My memory of Montesas is timing at 1.8mm BTDC (but the passage of time may have affected my memory). And checking every couple of trials as I liked it to run just so.

Walking boots are not tall enough to comply with ACU Regs. Road boots probably won't have enough tread to get full benefit from a dab.

The last I saw of the Mamore Lodge it was shut and decomposing. I'd be very surprised if anyone had put money on to this white elephant in the current financial climate. The SSDT website will give the contact if you want to observe. Access laws in Scotland are such that, if you want to go further off road than walking will allow, then you are allowed to go virtually anywhere on a mountain bike. There really is no need to cause problems by taking a motorcycle anywhere other than the public highway.

Looking to the future might it not be worthwhile now tracking down a better barrel while you can? Unless you've re-ported it of course.

I signed one on here before for a place in Belgium - last year I think - does anyone know if that petition was succesful?

Yes, I'd missed a lot of this too but the prize for wettest year probably goes to one, I think in the late sixties, where riders got stuck on Rannoch Moor overnight. I recall the reports (them was the days when both weeklies gave reasonable coverage to the event with reporters actually up there for the week) saying that a swollen river blocked progress but Sammy Miller took a long run up and jumped the torrent. Some riders spent the night in a bothy on the moors allegedly burning their socks to get some heat. Others rode along the railway line in the dark to get back to civilisation.

An overfull float bowl causes rich running (and flooding). The needle in the slide controls the mixture over the middle half of throttle opening. Try this for some advice http://sterlingmotorworks.com/amal_carburetor_tuning_tips

In the days when I had an outfit it seemed that you could stop for ever and get away with it provided there was a lot of bouncing going on!

Model not listed on their site Ross but these guys might be worth contacting http://www.dellorto....artsectionID=20 New carbs aren't as dear as I had expected. Might be worth getting a bit brutal with the solvent to clear the passageways in the old one?

Being an Italjet it might retire itself before season's end